Census watches Hispanic growth

Monday

The Avalanche-Journal is focusing on covering the importance of the upcoming census in Lubbock. Look for stories throughout the year.

Census organizers are looking to show the changing face of Lubbock and the South Plains.

Because the entirety of Lubbock's projected 20,000-person growth over the decade is expected to come from its growing number of minorities - not its shrinking, aging Anglo population - the Census Bureau is targeting the Hispanic community and other historically hard-to-count groups to make sure the area's changing demographics are reflected in the 2010 Census.

The number of Hispanics in Lubbock is expected to jump by nearly 17,000 people to more than 71,000 - making up about 33 percent of the city's population compared to 27 percent in 2000, according to city estimates.

"They'll be a third of the community," said David Buckberry, a city planner and local coordinator for the 2010 Census. "The Hispanic population is growing so much because they're a much younger population."

The average age of Hispanics in 2000 in Lubbock was 24.2 years - more than five years younger than the citywide average of 29.7 years.

Hispanics likely will account for the largest portion of the city's growth. The rest of the city's 20,000-person expansion is expected to come from a 13-percent increase in the black population - growing by more than 2,200 people to roughly 19,100, a steady rate over the last three decades, as well as growing numbers of Asian, American Indian and multiracial people.

The Anglo population is expected to shrink by about 1 percent, from 122,330 in 2000 to 120,804, according to the city's 2010 estimates.

That expected growth in Hispanic and minority populations has census organizers working to make sure those groups are accurately represented because they historically have lower response rates on the census, said Josh Silva, a Lubbock-based partnership specialist with the Dallas Regional Census Center.

"We just say that everybody needs to be counted," he said. "We don't ask for citizenship. We don't ask for Social Security. We just count people."

Across West Texas, Silva said, census officials will focus on hiring bilingual census takers to help collect questionnaires from hard-to-count groups.

Along with the growing Spanish-speaking population, he said, census officials are concerned with communicating with Mennonites in Gaines, Dawson and other southwestern counties in the South Plains. Mennonites, he said, often live in isolated communities, speak German and Spanish, and many don't speak English.

Silva said full-time census staff will man questionnaire assistance centers in towns and cities this spring and summer around the South Plains to provide assistance and help answer questions.

Census organizers also have targeted Hispanic and other groups with census events and informational booths at area grocery stores such as Amigo's in Lubbock and Plainview and local Catholic and Hispanic Baptist churches, Silva said.

The 2010 Census began earlier this month when the bureau mailed census forms to about 120 million households across the country. Each household has more than two weeks to fill them out and return them beginning Census Day on April 1.

To comment on this story:

adam.young@lubbockonline.com l 766-8725

CENSUS 2010/Government is reaching out to traditionally hard-to-count groups

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